Cruel world, cruel word
by AwesomeZombieSlayerGRL
Summary: Two survivors are left out in a contaminated zone. Will they survive?


~~~~  
Kay

Loud guttural snarls and shrieks echo throughout the forest jolting us from our sleep. Cole and I look at each other. We knew this day would come when the horde would finally catch up to us. We grab our emergency packs and bolt. Last week we had found a two-way radio with a channel that gave us a direct connection to the Military. We radioed them and apparently they were doing periodic stops near the Grand Canyon. So this past week, Cole and I had been traveling to the Grand Canyon. The Military informed us when they would pick us up. They would come get us at sunset. We had to be ready.  
Now we were. The past couple of days were spent setting traps and decoys to stall the incoming horde. We bolt through the trees, hearing a distant helicopter. We almost hit the edge of the forest when we hear the crashing of several feet and voices screaming for our flesh and blood. We run, hands clasped together, with backpacks and weapons bouncing on our backs. We hear a few happy shrieks which tell us that a few of the meat traps we set up had fallen but there were still several hundred of these things.  
We run, adrenaline pumping. Hearts in our ears and pounding against our chests. We hear more impacts behind us as they crash through the trees, only two minutes behind us. The edge of the Canyon is only less than half a mile away from the forest. We were closing in on it. I drop two heavier bags that I did not need, as does Cole. They thump behind us yet release us of their weight, allowing us to go faster.  
We are so close...

Cole  
We are nearly there. I can just barely hear the helicopter. Kay's hand is slicked with sweat and nearly slips out of mine. I keep a grip on hers. I do want to lose her, even though she has to lose me. It's the only way. We had only known each other well for two weeks yet I feel like we have known each other for years. We- she is nearly close to freedom from these freaks.  
I know she will find another, I will make sure of it. I know she will always remember me. These last moments. Moments that decide the life of one and the death of another. This world is cruel. So cruel.  
The shrieks and snarls jolt me from my thoughts. I push my own needs out of my head and put hers first. She needs to get out of here. With or without me. Cure or no cure.  
We are almost there... But almost is not enough...

Kay  
We are almost at the edge when the chopper rises up from the abyss below, all guns blazing. Bullets fly past us but none hit us. We are sprinting for it. Tension is in the air. All around us. Cole's hand is still in mine. I do not want to lose him. I have never met anyone like him before. The dead are still behind us, climbing over those who have been permanently placed into their graves. Never to rise again.

Cole  
We reach the chopper and jump inside. A SWAT member pulls us farther into the chopper, away from the death that lurks just out of reach but not aware of one that lurks within. The chopper begins to rise. The dead realize this and throw their bodies over the edge to reach the aerial vehicle. To feast on those inside.  
Even on one of their own. We rise faster and faster until the dead are no longer a threat to us. The co-pilot adjusts his mirrors and a colleague of his looks out of window to make sure we have no hitch hikers. I glance out the other door. We are still over the Canyon. It will be fast and she will be safe. I look down at my one hand that is not clasped in hers. Its bandage is showing but that is not what I am looking at. A formerly beautiful, now battered, violin case rests there. Battered and bruised yet the instrument remains intact. And beautiful. Just like her. Forever immortalized in music. In love.  
This case holds the one item I treasured dearly next to her. Holds my secrets for me when my mind overloads with them. I look at her. The words form a lump in my throat.

Kay  
"We made it!" I shriek as the chopper carries us away to safety. I flop back into my seat and keep my gaze away from the opposite door. I could blind myself from the gore and death but I could not block the noise. The whimpering. The impact sounds the bullets made as they hit their mindless targets. Cole has remained silent and still. His hand was still in mine. He was clenching it like it was a lifeline that he had to hold onto to keep afloat.  
He looks down to his violin case. I had listened to him on nights when we had no fear of being overheard. No fear of running for our lives. His music was so beautiful. It took me three songs to realize they were about me. That he loves me. That I love him. In high school, everyone is-was raging with hormones. Hormones that motivated us to get with someone of the opposite sex. There were those who weren't hormone-driven. We were some of those few.  
We had only gotten to really know each other over the course of a little over two weeks, yet we felt like we had known each other forever.  
Cole looks at me when he realizes that I'm watching him. His expression has me worried. Something is about to change. I know it. He knows it.  
The SWAT guy starts to talk to us but we don't hear him.

Something is wrong. Very wrong and I should have recognized it. I will forever blame myself for it.

Cole  
Tell her now before it's too late, you selfish bastard. It's for her safety even though she will never agree to it! I tell myself. "Kay..." Her name catches in my throat. How can I do this to her? you may ask me. Rob her of everything. I say the first things that come to mind for there will never be a chance to redo it once SWAT guy behind me notices the signs and kills me. "I love you. I always have and always will," I begin. I hold up my to stop her from talking. "Take this case and this-" I lift a thin piece of metal up from beneath my shirt. On the end is an old key. It was once beautiful, but, like the case, is battered. But like her, it is immortalized in music.  
"This will be the key to my heart. Keep it with you always," I say. Tears are now coming out of my eyes. Out of hers as well even though she doesn't know the reason why. "Always always remember me," I stop. I couldn't continue. My throat was too stopped up with tears. I kiss her. Fiercely. Longingly. For this would be the last time. She kisses me back. "I love you," she whispers to me. I kiss her once more. "Goodbye." Realization dawns on her face. I throw myself out the door as fast as I can. So I don't have a chance to hesitate.  
I hear a high pitched scream follow me as I plummet towards the earth.

Kay  
"CCCCCCCOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLEEEEEE !" I scream. "Cooooolllllllee!" I see him falling as the chopper rises. I rise and he falls. SWAT guy traps me in his iron grip when he realizes that I'm about to try and jump out of the chopper. "No, don't," he says. "Let go of me! Go back! You can save him!" I scream. Scream. Kick. Bite. Cry. "Get us out of here!" SWAT guy yells to the pilot. "NOOOOOO!" I scream as I see the doors shut automatically. SWAT guy releases me when the doors fully shut. I pound on the doors. I pound and pound until my energy leaves. I slump to the ground. I feel limp and numb.  
It does not feel real. Losing someone. To fully realize they're gone. You still expect them to knock on your door or call you. I feel nothing. Hear nothing. See nothing. Nothing except the tears in my eyes. My throat is dry from screaming. SWAT guy places a hand on my shoulder. I shove off his hand, hard. I look at him with anger mixed with sadness. A potent combination. Even he notices that. "Sam, knock her out before things get ugly," says the co-pilot, with concern in his voice, who was watching the scene unfold.  
"Why didn't you go back?" I say, anger creeping slowly into my voice, "Why didn't you save him?" My voice rises an octave. "There was nothing we could do for him. Choppers aren't designed to plummet nose down and save a falling kid on a dime," he tells me, "He was infected. He saved you by sacrificing his life." "Isn't there a cure?" I nearly yell. Sam flinches slightly at my voice. My words. "There was," he says after a silence passes over us. "'Was' ? What do you mean?" I ask. "We thought we had a cure and once word got out that we were treating people, it was chaotic." Sam looks down at his uniform.  
"People were panicky. They flocked the Outposts, trying to get vaccinated before the Infection hit them. Many were killed on the spot because they were too far gone. A few people were 'cured'." At that, he chuckles and hangs his head before looking at me, "After a couple of days, those that were treated originally came back. Their symptoms were worse. Sped up. The cure... accelerated the virus. They hadn't lost their minds yet even though tests declared them dead, infected, zombie, whatever you want to call it. Scientists believed they found a in between state, a limbo if you will. People were zombies yet still had human minds. It was strange. Scientists thought it fantastic. Kept a couple people for tests, experiments. Other people were horrified. Horrified that their loved ones were the walking dead yet were still human," he finishes and doesn't meet my gaze, the smile fades away. I get the feeling that he must have lost someone close to him.  
I nod from time to time. My anger had ebbs away. Slightly. Suddenly, I lurch to one side of the chopper, cradling my head. Darkness was creeping in on my vision. Sam immediately is at my side. "Are you alright?" he asks me. I couldn't answer. My eyes roll up and I collapse in his arms.

I awake two days later in a cot. Someone had changed my clothes and my skin and hair were clean. No one was around. I look around until my eyes rest on Cole's violin case. Seeing it brings tears to my eyes. I brush them away quickly and feel my neck. I still have the key. I bring the case over to me and unlock it. A false bottom pops out and reveals: a prom picture from senior year, a journal, a few sheets of music, a Lord of the Rings book, and a class ring with his name on it. I reach for the journal first.  
I flip through it. There were a few entries. I flip to one that was recent. Only a couple days ago.

12 August 2011  
Well, all has been well. We have managed to avoid another horde. Thanks the unfortunate sense I have picked up from a couple days ago when I went out. I cleaned the wound and bound it with some bandages I had with me. I don't want Kay to know. She'll worry or panic or both. She may even get scared and leave to die or put me out of my misery right then and there. No, she wouldn't that.  
When I got back, she was dozing off, my violin in her lap. She must have been cleaning. She woke when my foot landed on a leaf and instantly reached for her shotgun. She looked up and saw me and let go of the gun. She got up and hugged me. She pulls back and for once, I thought that she noticed the bandage on my arm when her lips met mine. It surprised me. And her too.

I feel my face blush and flip a couple entries further until I came to one that happened a couple days ago.

21 August 2011  
I have to tell her soon. This secret is getting harder and harder to bear. Besides, the cut is starting to bug me. I feel... different. I can... sense things. Things that I could never see, smell, or hear before. I'm changing! The sooner this goes on, the more danger I place Kay in. Damn it this sucks! Why does the world have to be so cruel?! On the "lighter" side, we finally found a working walkie-talkie. We radioed in a marine outpost a couple miles to the north of us across the Canyon. They told us that they would come and get us out, they just needed to get a fix on our location. We're going to be busy the next couple of days, setting traps to slow our hungry "friends" down. This is gonna be sooo much fun.

I frown. Then it clicks: he was getting the Virus. That's why he was acting funny the past couple of days. I pull my knees up to my chest and cross my arms around them, the journal hangs limply in my hand.  
I didn't even know if I should continue or not. Well, he gave me this for a reason. I owe him that much. I flip the journal open to the second to last entry, the one that was written the night before we were going to leave.

25 August 2011  
Well, this is it. We're going to be leaving this hellhole for another more "luxurious" one. For the past couple of days, I've been feeling sicker than before. All I know is that I don't have much time before I've fully changed. That's why I'm jumping out the helicopter the moment I get the chance. If I tell Kay about this, she would never agree to it.

Kay, if you're reading this... God I'm so sorry. You have no idea right now. You're just asleep by the fire while I'm writing words that'll basically condemn me. You'll find someone else and I know you'll say that there is no one else... You have to move on. I'm not saying go get laid the next time you see another guy... Hahaha, I'm just saying there will be another person out there that will make you happy. It's already dawn, so I'm signing off for now. I wish you the very best of luck and I wish I could say more, but

The journal stops abruptly. I stare at it and frantically flip through the pages. Without realizing it, tears start pouring down my face. I close the journal and place it up against my forehead.  
There was nothing else left to read. I sit like this for a few minutes before getting up. I begin to think of the people that I lost the past two weeks: my mom and dad, a lot of my friends and neighbors, and Cole. Why me? I think, Why did this have to happen?! The world could be so cruel nowadays. I kneel down and lock up the journal. My stomach grumbles reminding me that I have not eaten breakfast. I get up and walk towards the door. I turn around and smile a little.

I'll keep myself alive for you, Cole. You made so much trouble keeping me around and safe. And, besides, I don't want your ghost haunting my ass if I get screwed over.


End file.
